Leaders of a legislative committee planning closed-door hearings to examine the effectiveness of Child Protective Services are pushing for some of the meetings to be made public after a judge ordered the agency to allow the media to access some case files.
In late July, CPS was ordered to surrender the case files of three Tucson children from two families who were killed by their parents. The Arizona Daily Star and Phoenix Newspapers Inc., the parent company of The Arizona Republic and Tucson Citizen, had sued the state agency for access to the normally confidential files.
House Government Committee Chairman Rep. Kirk Adams says the court’s decision throws a monkey wrench into his plans to conduct confidential hearings on CPS’ work later this month.
“This sort of changes things. I’m not exactly sure what this means,” he said.
Adams, R-19, says he has already contacted House Rules attorneys about opening the hearings to the public, though no decision has been made.
While state and federal laws require CPS case files be confidential to protect the privacy of both the child and his or her family, the dissemination of the files by the courts may be enough to allow legislative leaders to open the meeting to the public.
The committee’s vice chairman, Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-30, signed an affidavit in support of the newspapers in the lawsuit and said he believes it is important to conduct legislative business in public’s view.
“I want to do things in the light of day, if possible,” he said.
First meeting set for Aug. 23; may be postponed
The first committee meeting is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 28, but Paton said it might need to be postponed if it is made open to the public.
Adams said one of the biggest hurdles in opening the meeting may be a confidentiality agreement he, Paton and several other members of the committee signed several months ago in order to view the case files.
“If I’ve signed it…but now this information is out in the public, can we be punished for violating that?” he asked.
Adams said he understands the need for confidentiality laws in most CPS cases, though he questioned whether they even need apply in these specific cases, as the three children that were subjects of the reports released to the media are all dead.
“Where I question the confidentiality laws is when children are dead and the parents are in jail,” he said. “In these cases, we’re not protecting the confidentiality of children who already died.”
He said he might introduce legislation next session to provide exceptions in the confidentiality laws because “different cases have different needs.”
One lawmaker who deals extensively with CPS says an open meeting could have negative ramifications. House Human Services Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Hershberger, R-26, believes the public’s attention could attract political posturing.
“I just don’t want it to become a witch hunt with people seeking media attention,” he said. “I want something meaningful to happen.”
But Paton says the sensitive issue of the hearings – children dying from parental abuse – will create a media swarm, even if the meetings are closed.
“It’ll be a media circus if it’s closed because people will want to know what’s going on,” he said.
If the hearings are opened, the decision would apply only to hearings and discussion pertaining to the case files released in the lawsuit. Other issues and cases would still need to be discussed in private hearings because of confidentiality laws, Adams said.